Denial

When: March 7-9, 7:30 p.m. 2013

As a work of drama, the stage play Denial is both heady and heavy: A Jewish lawyer and staunch First Amendment advocate agrees to defend a Holocaust denier when he's prosecuted by the U.S. government. The moral and ethical waters are further muddied when a Holocaust survivor gets involved. The first surprise about Denial is that the play was written by Peter Sagal, the affable host of NPR's Wait, Wait ... Don't Tell Me weekend panel show. The second surprise is that this production of Denial is being mounted by One Song Productions, the local theater organization run entirely by high school students from Durham and Chapel Hill. As my old drama teacher Mr. Mestes used to say repeatedly and without provocation, "Ah, theater! She always surprises!" 7:30 p.m. Thursday–Saturday. —Glenn McDonald